CONCLUSION: As long as I was wasted on drugs and alcohol, I didn't think about how unhappy and depressed I was.
Unfortunately, no one told me the hell it was being an addict -- and, no one
told
me about the Lord either. I had been to 13 schools and not one
classmate had enough sense to talk to me about Jesus!
My insecurities mounted into full blown
depression. My doctor conveniently prescribed tranquilizers and sleeping
pills. I took speed (amphetamines) in the mornings to get me
going. It took larger and larger amounts to give me a buzz. I became addicted to them and couldn't live without them for
15 years. I tapered off of the hard
stuff, but still alternated back and forth between amphetamines and
barbiturates and mixed alcohol with everything -- a deadly combination.
My brother, Frank, overdosed on PCP (an animal tranquilizer) and
attacked 8 people with a hammer one weekend in Springfield, Illinois.
While in prison, Romans 8:28 was fulfilled and he got saved and began
praying his family. Thank God. During this time our Dad, diagnosed as
Manic Depressive, committed suicide.
After Frank's release, I didn't understand the change in
him, but whatever it was --
I'd been looking for it my whole life. Finally, in 1988 he led me in the sinner's
prayer in his home, and I was filled with the Holy Ghost with the
evidence of speaking in other tongues shortly thereafter. Frank told
me something that I've shared in churches across
the world: if I would go to church, read my bible, and
pray, my life would never be the same. I was still taking large
amounts of tranquilizers
and sleeping pills. After a very short time of being saved, my doctor
referred me to a psychiatrist, who concluded I had the same illness that
drove my Dad to suicide. He said there was no cure, and it was basically
hopeless, but there were lots of anti-psychotic
drugs available for me! I had just enough
Word in me to know I didn't have to receive that diagnosis. I knew the bible said
God sent His Word and healed me and delivered me from all my
destructions, and that Jesus bore my sickness and
carried my
pain and with his stripes I was healed ... I refused to receive that
diagnosis and claimed my deliverance
from that devilish disorder in the name of Jesus and by the authority of
God's Word. I never took
any anti-psychotic drugs and was totally delivered from the
tranquilizers and sleeping pills. The Lord also delivered me from
the haunting memories of my past and of every addiction. I simply
believed God and dared to take Him at His Word.
When God saved me, He changed me. I think that's
the way it is supposed to be. God has
sent me throughout the United
States, Mexico, Africa, Europe and Asia,
seeing men, women and children's lives impacted in the name of
Jesus and for the glory of God. When you mean business with God, God
WILL mean business with you.
The message I carry: Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today
and forever. What he did for me -- He will do for you. †
